Kuwait Says Boycott of Ford Continues Despite Cairo Deal

October 31, 1977

In an apparent reaction to last week's agreement between Ford Motor Co. and Egypt, Kuwait Radio said yesterday that the Arab boycott of Ford is still in effect.

The radio broadcast a statement by Kuwait's Transport Ministry that because of Ford's dealings with Israel the Arab blacklist of Ford and all its subsidiaries and affliliates "was still in force in spite of some reports to the contrary."

Ford has been boycotted by Arab countries since 1966 because the company has an assembly plant in Israel.

The contract signed in Cairo Saturday calls for Ford to set up a $30 million truck and engine plant in Egypt. Last month, the Egyptians also signed a contract with Coca-Cola, Egypt has been urging that companies be removed from the blacklist if they invest more money in Arab countries than in Israel.

In other Middle East developments:

Egypt's President Anwar Sadat met with Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu at Sinaia, 80 miles north of Bucharest, for talks on U.S. Efforts to reconvene the Geneva conference. Diplomats in Romania's capital said the two leaders also discussed Egypt's relations with its former ally, the Soviet Union.

Sadat also is expected to have a reconciliation meeting with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi in Egypt around Nov. 21, the Lebanese newspaper Le Reveil reported in Beirut. Relations between Egypt and Libya has been strained since a border clash earlier this year.

In Cairo, Egypt's military tribunal ordered the release of 176 persons accused of belonging to the extreme rightist Moslem sect. Takfir Wal Hegra. Another 51 suspected members of the sect are being tried for alleged complicity in the murder of former Religious Affairs Minister Sheikh Zawabi last July.

At Port Said, an Egyptian official denied knowledge of a British nuclear submarine being prevented from passing through the Suez Canal. Capt. Gamal Rifaat, the port commander, added that Egypt's position on letting such vessels transit the canal "has not been decided on yet."

Britain's Defense Ministry said that the submarine, HMS Dreadnought, had been stopped at the entrance to the waterway. Sources in London said the submarine has been assigned new duty in the Mediterranean pending negotiations over its use of the Suez Canal.

Israel informed the Vatican that it will free Archbishop Hilarison Capucci as soon as it receives an expected appeal from Pope Paul VI, government sources said in Jerusalem. The Greek Catholic cleric was sentenced to a 12-year prison term in 1974 for allegedly smuggling arms to Arab guerrillas.